Murder in the Clinic
by notlupus
Summary: When the father of one of House's patients is found dead in the hospital, Guess who becomes Suspect Number 1? A series of unfortunate happenings cause all signs to point to House despite his protests. So, who knows? Maybe he is the killer.
1. He's NOT Suing

**Author's Note: Okay I guess I got the whole patient sickness right out of House Training but I just needed something to go on and it's not exactly very relevant to the actual plot of the story, so I just kind of stuck it in there.**

Murder in the Clinic

Chapter 1: He's NOT Suing!

"So what are you going to do about your new lawsuit?" Wilson asked as he and House casually walked through the hospital.

"What lawsuit?" House asks. At this Wilson seemed rather confused.

"Uh…the one you got a few days ago from that guy who looked like he was going bash your face in with your own cane and shouted it out in the middle of the lobby for the entire hospital staff and even a couple of patients to hear." Wilson said rather jokingly, as though House was just humoring him.

"Oh, that…" House pretends to be in deep thought for a second. "Well he hasn't given me any papers yet." He said dully. Wilson was shocked at this.

"His kid died, because you screwed up the diagnoses, and he's not suing?" He inquired.

"You act as though you want him to sue me." House looks at him accusingly.

"No, no it's just, after the scene in the lobby…there's no way that guy's _not_ suing." He and House walk down the hallway and into the elevator. Unfortunately their ride was going to be accompanied by a young couple trying to control their screaming toddler, a dazed looking college student, _Probably looking to get a fix. _House thought to himself,_ Oh, and he's going down the elevator. Bet he got lost trying to find the clinic._ And last but not least was an elderly man standing rather quietly in the corner of the lift, minding his own business. Good for him. As the doors closed, House and Wilson resumed their conversation in an attempt to drown out the screams of the whining four year old.

"Even if you didn't get your papers yet, the guy could still be suing." Wilson half yells.

"Or it could mean that he isn't suing!" House says in a voice to rival Wilson's. Luckily the doors open again, and the two step into the clinic.

"Trust me Wilson, there's no way that guy's suing me." House said pompously.

"Wait a minute. You're doing your clinic hours willingly?" Wilson asked partly because he's actually surprised and partly because he wants to change the subject.

"How do you know I'm doing them willingly? What makes you think Cuddy didn't hire some kind of telekinetic to psychopathically pull me into the clinic while you distracted me with you're irritating questions?" House goads as he pulls a file off of the nurse's station. Putting his hands up in defeat, Wilson walked away. Opening the file, House read the name

_Andrew Stone_

House uttered a small, "Damn…"

***

_Limping down the hallway and into his patient's room, House noticed a somewhat tall man, with salt and pepper hair, and the beginnings of a beard._

_"Who are you?" The man asked. Three words House hears from his patients and their family so often. _

_"I'm Dr. House," He says simply. "I'm your daughter's physician." Stone didn't seem at all bothered at this sudden meeting, and returned his attention to his child._

_"I have good news and bad news," House tells him. The man looks at him, thinking he was prepared for whatever news House had. "Good news is it's not cancer." Stone is clearly shocked at this. _

_"But Dr. Wilson said…." _

_"Dr. Wilson was wrong." House interrupted. "Bad news is I killed her." The man looks at him questioningly. "Her real problem is an infection." _

_"But you can treat that right?" Stone stutters. "Just give her antibiotics or something."_

_"No, we can't. Because the radiation we gave her destroyed her entire immune system. She's going to die." House said calmly. "I'm sorry." House limped out of the patient's room and into the lobby. As he approached the elevator he started to hear hurried footsteps come from behind him. Before he knew it, he was pinned against the wall._

_"Because of your screw ups, my kid is going to die. You said it yourself, You killed her." Stone yelled. House didn't have anything to say. He knew he made a mistake. It would be foolish to try to hide behind excuses. 'There's right and there's wrong' he once said, 'nothing in between'. He just looked Stone in the eyes sorrowfully and said,_

_"I know." At this, Stone releases his grip on House's lapels and allows him to fall to the tiled floor._

_"I'm going to sue you of every last penny you hold to your name, Doctor." He sneered and walked out of building._

The day after this confrontation, the young girl met her premature death, and House had not seen her father since their scene at the elevator. The next day, the story traveled all the way through rumor mill and back again, and soon enough, Doctors, nurses, staff and a handful of patients were familiar with some variation of the story, either true or exaggerated to the point of misrecognition. And so that brings us to today.

Walking into the clinic exam room, House instantly recognized the man sitting on exam table.

"Hello Mr. Stone."


	2. Discoveries

**Author's Note: This one's a bit short, but I'm just trying to get the right feeling out of the story for dividing it certain ways. So as I get more into the plot of the story, you're probably going to be seeing some longer chapters. **Murder in the Clinic

Chapter 2: Discoveries

Walking out of the clinic exam room after receiving a call from Foreman on his pager, House dropped Stone's file on the nurse's station and limped his way back to the elevators. After a silent ride on the otherwise empty elevator, he walked into the conference room to see his three bored ducklings and Foreman with his nose poked in the Star Ledger.

"I got paged?" He asked Foreman who folded up the newspaper and looked at him quizzically.

"I didn't page you." Foreman said. Shrugging it off, he held out a purple folder. "But now that you're here, I think we should tell you that we have a case. Examining the papers inside, House soon figured out the problem.

"Addison's disease put her on hydrocortisone." He said proudly, slapping the folder shut. "My work is done, I'm going home." Walking into his office, he grabbed his coat off the back of his chair, slung his backpack over his shoulder and limped into the hallway, only to be joined by Wilson.

"Differential diagnosis for getting a page from Foreman, when according to Foreman, he never paged me?" House said pulling out his pager as the two approached the parking lot.

"Maybe Foreman lied?" Wilson suggested.

"Who would lie about that?" House said rolling his eyes. Suddenly, Wilson slipped on a patch of black ice, bumping into House, causing the pager to fall into a nearby gutter to face its impending doom. Regaining his balance, House glared at his friend, "Oh, great going Wilson. At least now when I have to get a new one off Cuddy, I can tell her that it was all your fault."

"Sorry," Wilson said. "It's November. What happened to Global Warming? There shouldn't be ice on the ground." He muttered sarcastically.

"Wilson!" House gasped. "I'm surprised at you! There are polar bears dying!" He scorned jokingly.

* * *

Brenda, after the clinic started to become a little less hectic, had a slight suspicion nagging at her. She remembered seeing Dr. House leave Exam Room Two, but she wasn't entirely sure about the patient. '_Oh please. There were too many patients. How would I notice one person leaving one room._' She thought to herself. However, Brenda was still curious. After waiting for Dr. Bartok to finish with his patient, she decided to go inspect Exam Room Two herself.

Walking into the small room, things seemed fairly normal. She was about to leave, that is until she heard one cabinet door creak open. Still a little spooked, Brenda walked over to the cabinet. Thinking that it was probably nothing, she was about to shut the cabinet, but suddenly she noticed something odd. Opening the cabinet a bit wider, she realized that poking out of the cabinet was a human foot, clad in a black New Balance sneaker.


	3. Investigations

**Author's Note: Please don't make fun of the detective's name. I put it in there for a valid reason that I will explain in a little challenge I'm going to put in a later chapter.**

Murder in the Clinic

Chapter 3: Inspections

As he drove into work the next day, House couldn't help but notice how cramped Princeton Plainsborough's parking lot was. News vans and police cars were scattered over the property, and House was particularly thankful for having a reserved spot. Despite this luxury however, a few unfortunate members of the staff seemed to have lost their places to the overwhelming media.

Entering the lobby, he saw Cuddy fending off a couple of reporters and their cameramen, attempting to assure them that they had things under control. When the reporters were satisfied, they scampered off, leaving House with a chance to ask Cuddy what happened.

"Don't tell me someone beat Kutner's crawling record!" House gasped sarcastically. "He'll be absolutely devastated!" Cuddy rolled her eyes.

"House, this is serious." She said to him stressfully. "A patient was found dead in the clinic yesterday." This obviously grabbed House's attention. "Brenda found him yesterday stuffed in a cabinet."

"What patient was it?" He was serious now. Cuddy thinks for a moment.

"Umm…Andrew Stone." She said. "He was in Exam room two."

* * *

Young, rather inexperienced detective Sean Condon inspected the crime scene with a false look of confidence, aided by his mentor, Bailee Gray, a name that suited the woman well with her iron colored hair and stern features. Condon could never help but fell intimidated in Gray's presence, seeing as despite his daring attitude, he became nervous very easily. Shuffling around the crime scene, Condon examined the corpse of Andrew Stone.

Carefully scrutinizing the body, Condon noticed a thick, ugly bruise on Stone's neck. The mark was a perfectly straight line on the front of the neck, and was quite obviously the lethal blow. He figured that it would have had to be an insanely powerful hit to actually kill the man, so the killer must have pinned Stone down somehow and used some kind of pole or rod to strangle him. After checking the rest of the room for clues, and finding none, Condon went to share his discoveries with Detective Gray. Gray was talking to an anxious looking, petite woman with dark curly hair at the nurse's station.

"Detective Condon, meet Dr. Lisa Cuddy." Gray announced. "She is the Dean of Medicine at this hospital." They shake hands. Gray assures Dr. Cuddy that she and Detective Condon will solve the case as quickly as possible so that the hospital can return to its normal pace as soon as it can.

"If there's any way I can help…" Dr. Cuddy started to say.

"There's no need." Gray interrupted calmly. At this, Dr. Cuddy bid the two detectives goodbye and returned to her office. As soon as she left, Condon began to fill Gray in on his discoveries.

"Judging by the bruise on his neck, I'd say that the poor man was strangled with a rod of some sort. Could've been anything from an IV pole to a broom handle." He began. "The culprit stuffed Stone in the cabinet as a temporary hiding place. He probably wanted to dispose of the body later in the day, when the clinic was closed and empty." He paused for a moment. "Stone's getting brought into the lab for closer inspection." Condon finished, hoping Gray was satisfied.

"Now to figure out the culprit." Gray sighed. "According to about half the nurses on staff, apparently everyone's fixed on the idea that our killer is a certain Dr. House."

"Who's Dr. House?" Condon asks curiously.

"Hospital's head of Diagnostics is what any polite person would say, but in the nurse's opinion he is apparently the biggest ass in the state of New Jersey." Condon snickers.

"Biased much?" He mutters.

"We should keep that in mind, but let's look at our evidence." Condon perks up. The jokes are over. "Now, the first thing we should do is to try to figure out the guy's doctor." Gray begins.

"You think it could be his physician?" Condon asks.

"No matter how depressing that may seem Condon, it is most likely." She says with a rock hard glare.

"I know that." He says defending himself.

"However we do need more evidence. It could also be a variety of other people." Gray said.

"Like who?"

"Perhaps a janitor…or another doctor pretending to take over if the man's primary physician was to leave the room…" She said quickly.

"Or possibly a man impersonating a doctor, or there could have been more than one person involved." Condon suggests to his boss.

"Okay Condon, you keep those in mind, but right now we should focus our attention on the main physician unless we have evidence that proves otherwise." Condon nods.

"So let's go find the dead guy's doctor!" He said enthusiastically. Approaching the nurse's station, Condon taps his fingers on the hardwood reception desk. He sees a women clad in pink scrubs feverishly tapping away at a keyboard.

"Excuse me miss." He says politely.

"What?" the nurse asks rudely, not taking her eyes off the computer screen.

"I need to see the sign in log for the clinic yesterday." Condon said with a smile. The nurse wordlessly hands him a packet of papers, and obnoxiously takes a rather large bite out of an apple, not even hearing Condon's 'Thank you'.

Walking over to Gray, Condon opens the packet, and flips through the pages until he finds what time Stone stopped by for a visit. At where the log was roughly at 4:30 PM, Condon found Stone's name. He steadies it so that he and Detective Gray can read it.

"Patient…Andrew Stone…Physician…" He pauses.

"Dr. Gregory House."


	4. A Little Bit of Questioning

Murder in the Clinic

Chapter 4: A Little Bit of Questioning

Awaiting the test results of a patient House got that very morning, shortly after speaking to Cuddy about the current investigation, House sat at his desk, his eyes glued to a Bop It as its irritating sounds filled the room. Suddenly his office door opened to reveal two strangers, a stony faced, gray haired woman, and a younger quirky looking individual with a nervous look on his face.

"Dr. House," addresses the older woman. House continues playing his Bop It, the loud, obnoxious commands doubling to Grey's impatience. "Dr. House." She repeats, clearly on the end of her rope. After no reaction, she snags the toy out of his grasp, earning a "172," and an "Ahh, sorry but you lose!" from the Bop It, and not to mention a killer glare from Dr. House. The two detectives flashed their IDs , and approached his desk.

"Dr. House, I'm Detective Gray, this is Detective Condon." The woman says, motioning to quirky boy. "We'd like to ask you a few questions concerning your patient, Andrew Stone."

"Fire away." House said confidently, sizing up the two detectives.

"Dr. House, where exactly were you yesterday at 4:40 PM to 5:05 PM?" Gray inquired. House ponders for a moment.

"Well at 4:40 I was in the clinic, but at 5:00 I left and went home."

"Just one." House said with a yawn.

"And who was this patient?" Gray questioned.

"Oh, I'm sure you already know." House rolled his eyes. "Otherwise I'd still be playing the Bop It." Condon looked at him quizzically. This guy sure had a lot of nerve.

"Dr. House, answer my question." Gray repeated. "Who was your patient?"

"Andrew Stone."

"And exactly why was he there?" House racked his brain a bit.

"He had a sore throat judging from his file." Gray looked at him with a confused expression.

"But what about that little quarrel you two had a few days ago? Didn't he threaten to sue you?"

"Yes, he did." House assured, and started fiddling with an oversized tennis ball.

"Did he at any point bring up this fight anywhere in the conversation?" She asked.

"Uhh huh…" House said, his eyes fixed on the tennis ball.

"What exactly did he say?" asked the suddenly not so quiet Detective Condon. House throws the ball in the air and catches it with a flourish.

"He said he wasn't going to sue me." House muttered, not taking his eyes off of his toy.

"Excuse me, but could you repeat that?" Condon asked. House put down the ball and looked him straight in the eyes.

"He said," House began, his icy blue eyes sending a sharp, honest look into Condon's. "That he was _not_ going to sue me." He said slowly and simply, earning a skeptical look from Gray and an intrigued one from Condon. Suddenly the lyrics of "Paint it Black" filled the room, breaking the silence. House pulled a blue cell phone out of his pocket and flipped it open.

"What?" He snapped. He paused as he listened to the voice on the other end. After flipping the phone shut again, House stood up.

"If you excuse me, my patient is coughing up blood." Condon watched as House limped off to the elevators, aided with the help of a slender wooden cane. A cane roughly the same size and shape as the ugly purple bruise on Stone's neck. Condon was shocked at this new discovery, but judging by the look of Gray's arrogant smirk, it didn't surprise her.


	5. Pondering

**A/N: Short, I know, but more is to come. Don't worry!**

Murder in the Clinic

Chapter 5: Pondering

After watching Dr. House stumble off to the elevators, many thoughts went through Condon's mind. The first of which being, '_What an awfully strange man that doctor is.' _Not only does he wield a cane from some sort of unexplained ailment, but he was willing to walk away from a police questioning because something was wrong with his patient. That took a fair bit of nerve. What also struck him as odd was the matter of Dr. House's cane. Why is it that Dr. House just so happened to use one, when a bruise of such similar shape was found on Stone's neck. However, Condon thought that at the moment, Stone's crippled doctor may not be a reliable trail to follow. Nothing proved it was him. At least not yet.

* * *

During the interview, Grey found herself accumulating a growing dislike for Dr. House. As much as she wanted to keep her mind open, much of the evidence along with Grey's distaste for the man was making her more and convinced that House was the killer. After seeing Dr. House display his complete disregard for rules it showed that he didn't care about what he did or what the consequences were. A common thought in the mind of a killer.

* * *

After making sure the patient was stable, House returned to his office, forcing himself to deal with a new symptom to add to this scant but confusing list. Suddenly, House's mind began to wander. '_The two detectives._' He thought. They clearly left awhile ago, for other than House, the office was completely barren. House couldn't help but think of the tall, young, confident sounding detective. Despite his cocky grin, House could see right through the boy. It was probably the kid's first real case, lead by the stern iron haired mentor of course. Under the boy's confident smirk, he was really rather doubtful, rather nervous, not sure how things would turn out, hoping he could prove to a certain few people what he can really do. Not unlike House was on his first case, dealing with his first real patient. _'These are going to be an interesting couple of weeks.' _He thought with a smirk.

Getting his mind back on track, House returned his gaze to the whiteboard. After a few seconds it hit him. The puzzle pieces all got into place and House went off to tell the news to his team.


	6. Breaking the News

**A/N: I know, another late update…but I have been really busy lately and am so so so soooo sorry!!!**

Murder in the Clinic

Chapter 6: Breaking the News

The morning after diagnosing his latest patient with meningitis, House, wanting to keep his mind off of the troubling police investigation as much as possible, was feverishly searching through a mountain of files, hunting down one that could make a half way decent case to get his mind of things. Finally, he pulled out one that seemed vaguely interesting. _Patient: Kevin Carson, Male, 14 years old; came to clinic complaining of nausea, vomiting, and heavy perspiration. Physician originally diagnosed him with the stomach flu until he started having convulsions._

"Cool…" He mumbled. "That should keep the team busy for a few days…" Limping into the conference room, he tossed the file onto the table.

"New case!" He declared, and started to write the symptoms onto the board. The team looked at him quizzically.

"Wait a minute," Kutner pushed. "We just finished a case last night." He said with a raised eyebrow.

"Prescription Passion's cancelled today, need something to do." House proclaimed.

"Why not clinic?" Thirteen murmured sarcastically, earning a snicker from Foreman.

"Because, I have oh so much fun with you guys!" He joked. "Besides, police have this thing about their suspects returning to the scene of the crime. Looks suspicious."

"They think you killed him?" Kutner queried, his features looking rather concerned.

"Figures," Foreman said with a laugh. "He practically pinned you to the wall the other day didn't he?"

"They also find it rather suspicious that I treated Stone in the clinic not long before his supposed time of death." House said, rubbing the grip of his cane against his forehead. Kutner stared at him with wide eyes.

"You didn't do it though did you?" He stuttered. House pauses. _Do they really think I would murder a guy?_ He sends Kutner a death glare.

"Of course not." He said it slowly and solemnly. His fellows looked at him defensively, slightly scared looking.

"Let's get back to the case…" He murmured. They all hurriedly got back to work.

* * *

After sending his team off to run a series of tests on their new patient, House figured he should go bother Wilson. Limping over to his friend's office, he noticed a fifty year looking old man and woman leave the office with somber looks on their faces. He figured that Wilson just landed them the C-Bomb and told one of them that they had cancer, and only 'insert depressingly short time here' months to live. After watching them shuffle to the elevators, House slammed open the office door, causing the small book shelf next to it to topple onto the floor.

"House! For all you knew I could have been with a patient." Wilson sighed, as he squatted down to pick up the fallen books.

"Wilson!" House imitated. "You know better than to think I would actually care!" Wilson rolled his eyes at him as he began to examine the condition of a large, leather bound text. "Besides, I saw your last patients leave, ergo leaving you here to organize your pens by order the ink colors appear in the rainbow."

"So any particular reason why you're here, or do you just want to bother me?" Wilson groaned from the floor.

"Did I mention I'm a lead suspect for Stone's murder?" House said casually as he picked a random book off the floor and started to flip through the pages.

"What?" Wilson shouts, standing up again, his eyes popping and his face turning scarlet.

"They. Think. That. I. Killed. Him." House didn't take his eyes off the book as he started to read a page.

"They think you murdered someone, House? Can't you take things seriously for once? If they find you guilty, you'll lose your job, your license, you'll lose your freedom!" Wilson clamored. "House. They will wreck you." He yelled, breathing heavily.

"Don't worry Wilson, I got it under control." House said calmly as he put down the book.

"The last time you told me that, a man ended up dead, House." For the second time that day House was surprised that people honestly thought he was capable of murder.

"Wilson," House looks at his friend with a serious glare. "I didn't kill him." Wilson rubs his temples and returns to his desk.

"No, no, of course not." He said with a sigh. "Just be careful with these guys House. If you make yourself look like some kind heartless monster, then it will just be twice as hard to get them off your case." House nods solemnly and limps out into the hallway.

* * *

Stan Parker strutted into the lobby of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, camera in hand, ready to take a much needed picture for his boss's big project. He managed to find a picture of the guy he needed on the hospital's website, but he needed one of his own. After asking a nurse where the guy's office was he was ready to take a quick picture of the dude and get away before he noticed. When he arrived on the third floor, he suddenly got extremely lucky. Making his way down the crossing hallway was the dude for the project! _Sweet!_ He thought, and quickly took a picture as the dude limped down the hallway. Looking at the small screen on the camera, he was pleased with the results. The guy looked grumpy and unpleasant, exactly what he needed.

* * *

"Morning Cuddy!" House exclaimed, slamming open his boss's door and parading into the office, completely ignoring the fact that just interrupted a conversation between Cuddy and her two guests.

"Did you hear about Dr. Brown flirting with the nurse from Pediatrics? I thought he was dati—"

"Dr. House." A bitter voice interrupted from the other side of the room. House cranes his neck to see the fuming face of Detective Gray, and the badly hidden smirk of Detective Condon.

"Oh, I'm sorry." House sneered sarcastically. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Yes, you are actu-" Condon said but Gray cut him off.

"Actually, Dr. House we were just finishing up." Gray walks over to the door, hesitantly followed by Condon. "Goodbye, Dr. Cuddy." She said.

"Um…Goodbye." Cuddy responds, only to instantly return her attention to House.

"What in God's name were you thinking?" She shouts. House shrugs. "Those people decide whether or not you killed a man!" House remains silent. "House, I know you didn't kill this guy. I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't kill a guy because he threatened you with a lawsuit." She reasoned calmly. "You welcome those kind of things like free Ipods, for Christ's sake." She murmured. "I just don't need you being a complete ass around them. You can't go to jail House. I risked too much keeping you out of it during the Tritter fiasco, and I don't think I can do it again."

"Okay." House said, and he quietly walked back to his office.


End file.
